The SSU Cyber Department shut down another bot farm in Kyiv. Criminals created 3,000 fake accounts to spread destructive content in popular social networks.

Their information attacks were aimed at discrediting ministries and agencies, law enforcement, military enlistment offices, and the Constitutional Court of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, two residents of the capital, former employees of IT companies, set up the bot farm. At their homes, the offenders organized the process of mass registration and administration of fake accounts in Instagram and Facebook.

To anonymize the ‘accounts’ and avoid their blocking, the group developed a specialized software and hardware complex.

The equipment made it possible to change the IP address when creating each subsequent account, each time imitating the registration of a different real subscriber of Ukrainian mobile operator in the social network.

Accounts created in this way were ‘rented out’. Among the bot farm’s clients were russian PR companies engaged in spreading anti-Ukrainian content.

In particular, the bots spun custom-edited videos and photos that discredited Ukrainian politicians and ridiculed legislative initiatives.

As a result of searches, investigators found and seized:

• computer equipment;
• special software;
• server equipment;
• 35 modems;
• 500 SIM cards of Ukrainian mobile operators.

At the SSU’s initiative, after examinations, the confiscated property will be handed over to the National Agency of Ukraine for Detection, Tracing and Management of Assets (ARMA).

Currently, investigators are preparing a notice of suspicion to serve to one of the organizers of the unlawful activity under Article 361.1 of the CCU.

The investigation is ongoing.

The operation was carried out by the SSU’s Main Directorate in Kyiv and Kyiv region under the procedural supervision of Svyatoshynskyi District Prosecutor’s Office.

Since the beginning of 2022, the SSU Cyber Department has shut down 35 bot farms, including a million-account bot farm organized by a political technologist and russian citizen. The entity was used by certain political forces in Ukraine and by russian special services.